Antoni Plàcid Guillem Gaudí i Cornet

by Steven Alm

In the Casa Batlló and in La Pedrera, one feels the strong influence of organic forms, but in La Sagrada Família one is overwhelmed with them to the point where one’s head hurts. The detail is too much. It’s impossible comprehend the whole. And now that the structure is filled with scaffolding and surrounded by cranes, your strongest desire is to scream at the top of your lungs and wish that Franco had bombed the cathedral to rubble. Of course, one doesn’t really feel this way. It’s just that one can’t make sense of it. It’s like being in a relationship with a woman who presses all of your buttons at once. How odd that Gaudí was killed by a streetcar and that it will take another fifty-three years to complete his work. La puta madre.